Tuesday, April 20, 2010

History has shown us that drugs and alcohol can exponentially increase a person's problems. The most successful people can be run down by addiction, destroying not just the addict's life, but also the lives of the family as well. The disease of addiction is one that affects the whole family; no one in a family goes unaffected. Everyday families across the world are in the midst of a daunting battle with their family member's addiction. The entire family is put through the same hell that the addict is living in; watching a loved one deteriorate right in front of their eyes can be detrimental to one's health - especially the children.

Children of addicts start their life as victims, alcohol or drugs will dictate the child's future. Countless babies are born into addictive environments, into families where food and health are the last priority in life due to substance abuse. Pregnant women caught in the grips of addiction will surely bring their baby into a world of pain, greatly increasing their child's chances of becoming an addict one day. It is fair, every new born child should have a shot at life; but, when a child is born into a world of addiction they are from the get go handicapped in life. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is just one of many problems that can occur when mothers drink and drug; there are children who start their life already addicted to drugs like cocaine and heroin. The chance for success is quite slim.

So what is the solution? Well, in a perfect world there would be no drugs or alcohol to poison people's futures; unfortunately, drugs and alcohol are not going anywhere which is why some organizations are taking the matter into their own hands. Project Prevention is a group which claims to have stopped 3,500 addicts in the United States from having more children. How? They offer addicts money in exchange for sterilization. Now the UK is trying to jump on the sterilization band wagon. Apparently, an anonymous British donor donated 13,000 pounds to Project Prevention with the hopes of starting a similar program across the Atlantic. Addicts would be given 200 pounds in exchange for them agreeing to sterilize.

This new project raises a lot of moral and philosophical questions that I am sure will be addressed in the near future. Do we have the right to offer people who are not in their right mind a choice like this?